Playing Pranks
by Wild-Chime-Child
Summary: Katniss and Gale's son and daughter have been seeing each other for a while. But now they want to play a prank on their parents. Pretending to be pregnant will get them in a lot of trouble.
1. Chapter 1

**Secret Seeing**

I know my overly-protective mother is fallowing me. I knew I knocked something over when I left the house. Maybe a vase? I don't know. All I know now, as I run through the forest to me and Maximus's secret meeting place my mother I fallowing. She may be quick and light on her feet; but I am much quicker and lighter. Plus I'm not six months pregnant with my soon-to-be brother.

Maximus and his family should have arrived today. But we won't be seeing each other till tomorrow so we're meeting up tonight. Under the stars just like the first time we saw each other.

I dash through bushes and run past the all too familiar trees. Until I reach the place we see each other. I know it was also the place my mother and Maximus's father used to meat. I hope mother doesn't mind.

I finally crash into the little clearing overlooking 12. I almost run right into Maximus. As it is he catches me up in a hug.

"Good god Emery. Run much faster and you'll be running at the speed of light." He whispers into my ear. I giggle. Which is something I don't do often. But he always makes me so giddy inside!

I pull away. "It's so good to see you too! Hey!" I take my hand and measure our foreheads. "You're taller than me! Wait, you were before weren't you?" Maximus laughs.

"I will always be taller than you!" he scoops me up bridal-like and swings me around. I laugh.

"Well, this visit will be short 'cause I'm almost positive that my mother is fallowing me." I sigh. Maximus's smile melts right off his face.

"Ya, my dad's doing the same thing. Parents are so paranoid!" he sets me down. I laugh by his exudation of 'paranoid'. His smile returns again. As bright as the moon.

We hear a rustling next to us but we share a moment of understanding with each other. Both our parents are stalking us; we need to play a prank on them.

"When should be break the news?" I ask suggestively. I hold my hand up with his and he catches my joke. He smiles.

"Well I doubt they would approve." He twirls me around.

"And then there's…"I trail off and Maximus places his hand on my stomach, very suggestively. Meaning he wants them to think I'm pregnant. I giggle. "Don't tickle me!" I wail as I fall to the ground in fits of laughter while Maximus tickles me. "stop! Stop!" I pant through ragged breathes. Finally he does stop and lays down next to me. I remember what they told us in school about pregnant women not being able to sleep on their backs so I roll over with a grunt.

"I hope it doesn't hurt." Maximus has the perfect look of worry on his face. It's all I can do to keep me act together. I shrug.

"no, not normally. I just hope I won't end up as fat as mom is right now." We both laugh.

"I am not fat!" we look up to see mother standing above us looking peeved. Then Gale stands up.

"Ah, good of you to join us." Maximus muses. "It doesn't suite you two to be hiding in the bushes. What were you two doing eh?" he asks highly suggestively. Both Gale and Mother go beet red. "Or were you two just spying?"

"Yes we fallowed you two. Only because we care about you two." Mother admits.

"well, fine job you're doing." I snort. "You do realize this is about the 100th time I've snuck out to see him right?"

I stand up. We won't be telling them that all this is made up yet. We'll let them figure that out on their own.

"Now, I'm going home. I will see you tomorrow Maximus. Good bye Gale." I kiss Maximus lightly on the cheek. I stalk out of the clearing and run back to our house leaving everyone wondering.

When I get home I run up to my room and collapse on my bed.

What the hell have I just done?

The next morning I wake with mother and father standing in front of me looking down on me. Well, actually mother is straining to look over her swollen womb.

"Ah, good morning." I say in a cheery voice. Both Mother and Father look deeply upset and I wonder what it is. Until I remember the joke Maximus and I played on them last night. "What are you two unset about, eh?" I ask.

"Let's see your punishment." My father says.

"What! What did I do?" I sit up, totally out raged.

"Let's see," my father continues as if nothing ever happened. "You don't get to see him. You don't get dinner, and we're taking away your weapons, oh! And no hunting for a week." With that they stride out of my room. Closing the door behind them. I hear the faint click as it locks.

Brilliant.

Just a joke! I immediately pick up my phone and try to call Maximus. He picks up.

"Are you punished like I am?" He sighs in the speaker. "I don't get to go hunting, I get no dinner and I have to stay in my room."

"I get no hunting, no dinner, and I can't see you. Although that's a bit obvious." I look at my window. I few years ago I was always sneaking out of my window and going places. So father bolted it closed.

"I'm under house arrest too. I just want them to know it was a prank. But if we tell them now they'll say I'm making it up." He sighs. Even over the phone he sounds dejected.

"Mine will do the same. It's not fair. It was just a prank!" I all but yell it into the speaker. "But you made the point." I sigh. Then I think of the most brilliant idea in the world. "Hey, wait. We could work this out!"

"You mean talk to our parents? Because if so that's a terrible idea."

"No! I mean work this to our advantage! Have some fun with it! Deepen the prank so that it looks twice as bad when it all comes crashing down on our parents." I say excitedly.

"Hmm, I could see this working. But I could also see it failing. Oh well, lets try. So what are you going to do?" Maximus asks.

"I'll just pretend to be pregnant. Do something to your parents too. I don't know what though. Just scare them a lot!" I say. There is a crash from the other side of the phone.

"My parents are trying to get into my room. Gotta go." Maximus hangs up and I put the receiver down. This is going to be sooooo fun.

"Emery! Come to breakfast." My father calls from down stairs. I get all giddy and skip down the stairs with a smile on my face. My father looks up from the pancakes he was making and frowns. My mother sits at the table and doesn't even look up.

"Goooood morning!" I sing. I want to peeve them off as much as I can. This time mother does look up and furrows he brow as she inspects me. Then looks down at her own bulge and frowns. Now her face is all scrunched up in the middle and she looks like she's just eaten something sour. I almost laugh.

"We need to talk." Father says. Well duh? How long did it take them to figure that out?

"Your only 15!" my mother wails! "Why would you do this?" she wails again. I just sit myself down at a chair and get bored already. "You're pregnant?" she comes around and crushes me in a hug. It I _was_ pregnant than I'm sure that wouldn't be good for the baby.

Father just sighs. He looks disappointed. It almost makes me want to tell them that I'm not really pregnant. Almost. He's going to have to do a lot more than just guilt me into this. Maybe I can guilt him into taking the bars off my windows so I can sneak out again.

When mother pulls away I take in a gulp of air. Maybe I can do something with hormones? Mood swings? I know mother does that.

"Well, you were the one spying last night!" I say. Sounding irritated.

"Well yes. But… but… you shouldn't have to do this. I had to be in love with your father at six teen!" mother argues.

"Well I know what I'm doing!" I almost yell. "You can't protect me forever." I say in a smaller voice. I stand up. I still want pancakes. I go over to the stove and put three in a bag. I run up to my room with my parents still watching me closely. I squint my eyes for fake tears.

I eat feverishly as I kick at the window bars. My hands have blisters all over them by the time my phone starts wringing.

"Hello?" I say into the receiver. Maximus's voice comes out ragged with laughter on the other side.

"I definitely did something." He busts out laughing.

"Well?" I ask. "What did you do?"

"I snuck out of the window and went to the store and bought condoms." I don't see how this is so funny yet. "I hid them in my bag in my hotel room. When my parents went snooping in my room like I thought they would they found them and were soooo peeved! I was just sitting in the kitchen waiting for them to be done and they came out with them in their hands and shoved them at me demanding an explanation!" I burst out laughing with him this time. That's a lot more than I did I just did mood swings.

"I don't know what I should do." I say truthfully.

"good I thought of one for you." He whispers into my ear and I laugh.

"Why didn't I think of that?" I demand. I say good bye and go back to work on the bars. I'll need to be able to get out if this will work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

**(A.N) sorry it took so long! I've got 3 stories going at once. Plus, my spring break is over Easter so I don't have all that free time right now. Really sorry it took so long to update!**

I wake up with sore hands. I managed to get the bars off last night but by then my hands were raw and it was 3 in the morning. So I just called Max and told him I would meet him in the woods. I don't care if I have to skip school!

I get dressed in my clothes and dump my school stuff on my desk so I'm not lugging it around. I put my money in my back pocket and skip down stairs.

Father is cooking breakfast and Mother is sitting at the table looking grouchy. I smile as I walk in, I hold my hands behind my back so they can't see the red inside of my palms. I ask dad for my lunch money; he gives me it without looking at me. I think they're going to give my silent treatment until I say I'm sorry for getting "pregnant"

I skip out the door. I see the school bus at the end of my street so I have to run behind our house so it doesn't catch me. I watch it slip by and sigh. I slip through our yard and through the bushes to the forest.

I could close my eyes and still find my way to Max's and my spot overlooking District 12. Max isn't there yet so I sit in a tree and wait for him to come. He slips into the clearing and looks around and whispers me name.

"Emery? Emery, where are you?" I jump down from the tree and land behind him. He jumps but immediately wraps his arms around me in a bone crushing hug. I wrap my arms around him and hug him back. But soon I run out of air and have to push him away.

"Did you come here just to smother me?" I ask, I'm smiling so it gives me away. Max smiles and takes me by the hand.

"We better get moving then. We don't want to miss your time." He says. He leads me back through the woods and out behind what used to be the Hob. It was rebuilt and made into a real legal shopping center where only teenagers hang out. You can find things like pet snakes and stuff there. And in Max's and my case… birth control pills.

We enter through the back and into the smoky air. I cough and Max shakes his head. We have to get through to the front. I take Max's hand and he squeezes lightly; I hold my breath as he leads me to the front.

I have no idea how Max knew about this place; and I don't really want to find out either. But he knows where he's going and soon I'm pushed through a heavy silk curtain. I gasp at the sudden air. Max comes through next to me. It's very dim so I can't make out anything for a moment. Then my eyes adjust and I see a person sitting behind a desk. He has a hoodie pulled over his face so I can't see who it is. But when he speaks I recognize his voice quickly.

"You two love birds here for something?" he pulls back his hood and I see Elm. Elm goes to school with us and I'm not at all surprised to see he works like this. He always gets in trouble for stuff like smoking in the hallway. He spikes his red hair to razor points and his black eyes look more like bottomless pits, he scares even his mother and father.

"We need birth control." Max says quickly so I don't have to explain. Elm leans forward and looks me right in the eye. I lock my knees so I don't shake. This dude is seriously scary.

"You're kidding right?" he asks. I nod my head. He leans back then starts laughing; like, _really_ hard. He rolls on the ground for a moment while Max looks exasperated and I tap my foot. He finally gets up wiping his eyes.

"'ya know, if this sort of thing makes you laugh so hard you should really go into another business… like building." Max says sarcastically. Elm frowns but opens a drawer in the desk. He pulls out three containers of pills and examines them. He puts them on the desk in front of me.

"Alright." He says. "I'll give you these for 20 bucks. But you're not getting it any lower." Why is he being so cheap? "I don't normally go this low 'ya know. I'm doing this for my friends" he stretches his arms out lazily and his eyes glint maliciously. He makes me think of a hungry cat more than a person.

"Deal." Max says. He drops the money on the desk and grabs the bottle. Elm's long arms snatch up the money greedily. He counts it then sticks it in his pocket. He grunts.

"Use it wisely love birds. Or else." He shakes a finger at us; but his smile is big so I don't think much of it.

I'm very glad for the clean air when we leave Elm's shop. I gasp and Max laughs, he puts his arm around my shoulders and whispers in my ear. "Ready to face our parents?" I giggle as we walk home. When we get to the split in the road that leads to my house and him we say good bye and he kisses my cheek.

I walk home with a spring in my step. I know what to do. I take out about seven pills and put them in my pocket. I walk into the kitchen with a crazy grin on my face. Mom's sitting at the table reading and Dad's cooking (can you guess?) cheese buns.

"Hello!" I say cheerfully. As I walk in, mom looks up and grunts and dad looks at me suspiciously.

"You're home early," he comments. Shit, I didn't see if it was three yet! I glance at the clock on the mantel. It's only 2:00!

"Um… they let us out early," I lie. "We finished all our work quickly." I try to dodge Dad but he grabs my back pack instead of me on my way to the sairs, the pocket rips open and the bottle of pills falls out. YES! It worked.

Dad stares at me in stunned silence, then erupts.

"Emery Rue Mallark! What the hell is this!" he demands. He stuffs the bottle under Mom's nose. She places her reading glasses on her nose and squints at the bottle. (she doesn't mind being short sighted, as long as she can still shoot far.)

"Why are you taking this?" Mom demands. "This is a drug Emery!" she shoves it at me and I look at the label. _Morphing. _SHIT! Neither Max nor I checked that Elm had given us the right bottle!

"Um…." Is all I can get out. Dad's face is completely red and Mom is scary calm which I think is worse. "Um…"

"Explain!" Dad shouts. I have nothing to do but run. The stairs are right behind me! So I make a dart for them. I run as fast as I can, I can hear dad right on my heals as I slam the door to my room behind me. "Open Up! Open up this door right now Emery Rue Mallark!" Dad has nearly pounded the door in. I back away slowly until my back hits the window sill.

The window!

I pulled off the bars last night! I pull it open and sit on the sill. I haven't done this in a while so it's going to be tricky, the bush that used to be under my window isn't there anymore so I'll be in a direct hit. Dad flings open the window and sees me he screams in a very girly way and lunges. But just then, I tumble from the window. 


	3. Chapter 3

**(A.N) ok hi! This story is a lot more popular than I thought! But there is one little thing I thought I needed to clear up because I don't think I made it very clear. Emery and Max **_**are**_** dating but they "wouldn't" ever go that far as to get Emery pregnant. Ok, that's it! Enjoy!**

I land on my back on the ground. Dad peers down from up on my window. He screams again (a girly scream) and pushes away from the window. I know he's coming down here so I get to my feet and start running. My only thought is to go find Max, and then go pound Elm into the ground.

I run a long way, all the way into town to Max's house. I don't think Max's parents would be very happy to see me… both my and Max are under house arrest. I'll have to worm my way around it. I pat my hair down and slow my breathing before I knock on the door.

Mrs. Hawthorn opens the door. She frowns. "What do you want?"

"I have a message for Max. it's from my mother." I do my best to look glum and unhappy. Mrs. Hawthorn seems to enjoy my unhappiness so she lets me in. I stand there looking very awkward in the hall while she goes to call Max from up the stairs.

"MAX! YOUR PREGNANT GIRL FRIEND IS HERE TO SEE YOU!" she hollers. Max comes sliding down the banister looking wild.

"What where-" he stops when he sees my look of warning. "Mom, could you give us a moment?" Mrs. Hawthorn grunts, shoots me a look that says 'lay a finger on him, and I'll cut them all off' but she does leave for the kitchen where I can smell something burning.

As soon as she's out of ear shot. I go over and hug Max. "What the hell!" I furiously whisper. "Elm didn't give us birth control! He gave us morphing!" Max's eyes widen and his nose scrunches up.

"That little bitch!" he almost says aloud. I frown at his language and Mrs. Hawthorn comes back in.

"That's enough talk mister!" she takes Max by the ear and leads him back into the kitchen with a lot of complaining from him. She shoves him in and turns back to me. "You! Stay away from us!" Max's muffled complaints come from the kitchen even louder. I giggle to myself at his displeasure.

I walk out of the house solemnly. I run back to the Hob and back to Elm's stand. I cannot believe my eyes. On the ten there's a sign tacked up saying 'Run out of business, sorry love birds. –Elm' I want to kick this guy all the way to the Capitol. A growl to myself which earns a few strange glances from some stoned boys in the corner. Stupid Elm.

I need to find him. I look around and grab the first boy I see by the collar and drag him up to my face.

"Where. Is. Elm?" I hiss. He looks so startled he just gapes at me for a moment before he finally manages to get out.

"Um… he might be at his other location." I wait for a moment; he seems not to know that I want the name of the location. I didn't even know he had one.

"And… where is that." I ask.

"oh! It's 102 Elm street. I think…" wow, leave it to Elm to pick a totally obvious place to work.

"Thanks…" I say, now I'm a bit embarrassed that I yelled.

I run out of the Hob and am almost all the way to Elm Street when I realize something. In order to get there I'm going to have to pass the bakery. I know that dad will have some workers out in front to look for me. Yes, that's how paranoid he is. I round the corner and check quickly. Yep, Brute and Robin are out in front looking very menacing, I think it's funny that both of them are the ones who like to ice the cakes. They look like body guards and people are steering clear for right now. Oh brother!

A cart is coming from down the street; I duck behind it and beg they won't notice my legs under the cart. I have to walk quickly to remain unseen. I'm almost there! Yes! I made it! I stop walking and just stand there a moment. Only a moment, but that's all it took.

"Hey! Kid! Emery!" I hear Robin's voice behind me. Shit! I look behind me and see them wading through the crowd toward me. Thank god it's very dense. I take off running. Unlike them I've had practice with this and I know how to do this. At this point Brute and Robin are almost shoving people out of the way to get to me. I run faster. I get to Elm Street and stop for a moment. I think I've lost them for a minute while I catch my breath.

I pause right next to an ally and lean on the wall. I think at this point I should be expecting the unexpected. But nooooo, I just couldn't do that.

A arm snakes out from the ally and wraps around my mouth. I'm so startled I don't have time to scream before another arm comes and wraps it's self around my middle and pulls me out of sight into the ally.

**(A.N) ohhhhhh, wow! That's not good. Who do you think it is?**

**Also, my mom is being a jerk and isn't letting me bring my computer on Spring vacation to Florida. So I wont be able to update for a while. Oh well, you guys will just have to wait and see! **


	4. Chapter 4

**(A.N) sorry it took so long to update! But I've been busy with studying 'cause my end of the school papers coming up! Enjoy!**

"What do you think you're doing attracting guards to my other business?" Elm hisses in my ear. It just now accurse to me that Brute looks a lot like a guard, he's got the arms and muscle, but a heart as soft as dough.

"Mmmmm! Mhmhmm!" I try to make it out but Elm's hand is still clapped on my mouth and I'm too afraid of what he's been touching for me to lick his hand. Elm realizes this and takes his hand away. "Why did you give us Morphing?" I hiss back, crouched in this ally I feel very powerful over Elm. "You nearly got us killed!"

Elm chuckles sadly. "not as much trouble as you would have if your parents had found the _actual_ birth control pills!"

"Oh no!" I protest. "They were more mad about the morphling!" I'm as pissed as possible now. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking," Elm says it like I'm dumb. "That if you were going on birth control than it wouldn't be much worse than Morphling." I roll my eyes and shake my head. I'm in no mood to argue and I have completely forgotten why I came to Elm in the first place.

"What ever!" I say angrily. "you're wrong about my parents. You know who they are and why they don't like it." I stand up and check around the corner for Brute. When I turn back I notice Elm's eyes are locked on my butt. "Stop that!" I say and his eyes snap back to mine.

I storm out of the ally before he has a chance to look at anything else on me. I don't know why but I run for the woods. Where I would be meeting Max if he could still get out of his parent's sight!

I pretty much crash through the woods; blindly looking through my hate for Elm at the trees in front of me. That might be the reason that I crashed right into a tree before I reached the clearing. Right before I crash to the group a pair of sturdy arms an case me. At first I think of Elm and thrash about but instead of his voice (that would no doubt be cursing me out for hitting him) I hear laughter.

"Calm down! I gocha!" Max's voice comes through and I stop fighting as I collapse. Max looks down at me with pity, which makes me mad for some reason. Have I been having mood swings lately or what?

"no, you don't got me." Max looks confused and lets go of me. "THAT STUPID ELM AND HIS GOD DAMN PILLS WITH THOSE-!" I start yelling at the top of my lungs and stomping my feet on the ground. Max laughs at me and puts his hand over my mouth to quiet me, then leans down so his face is level with mine.

"You saw him?" I nod dumbly. "Did he do it on purpose?" again I nod, to this he says: "Alright, I'm sure my dad has some kind of gun in the house." He takes away his hand and looks around.

"No, don't shoot him!" I say. "that'll get us no where." I'm angry again, no I'm not angry, yes I am, no I'm not. URG! Why can't I make up my mind! Max puts an arm around me and kisses my head.

"Are you alright?" he asks. I frown, I STILL can't make up my mind!

"I dunno." I confide. "One minute I'm angry, the next I'm not…" I trail off. Memory of my first part in the prank comes back. When I made up mood swings. I feel sad, no, happy, no sad, no happy. "URG!" I shout. I stomp my foot and Max takes a step back.

"Emery?" his tone is quizzical.

My eyes grow wide when I realize what (if I'm right) this could mean. I start to pace back and forth, Max still seems oblivious as to why I'm upset. I can't think strait, my mind is going to the worst possible situations.

Max comes and stands in front of me, blocking my path. "Emery." He takes my shoulders. "What Is Going On?"

I take his shoulders. "Max…" I say in a controlled tone. "What if I'm really pregnant?"

**(A.N) ohhhhhh! What if she is? Cliffy! Sorry to say the next chapter wont be up for a while because I have testing all next week so it wont be up until a tleast after. Sorry! **


	5. Chapter 5

**(A.N) I know, it's been a while. But my papers are gone and done with! So I'll be uploading a lot more now!**

I look at Max steadily for only so long before I explode. Screaming my head off while Max seems to be in some kind of shock at what I just said.

"BUT I DON'T REMEMBER HAVING SEX WITH YOU!" he screams. I remember with a suck in my gut a party we once went to where we got a little too on the stuff in the punch. We thought someone had spiked it. Too drunk means new things.

I don't stay to listen to that little thought in my head before I'm running back to my house. No one will be there; my parents will be out looking for me. I tare into the back yard and up the back porch. Up the stairs and into my parent's bathroom. My mom's pregnant with my little brother so she has a bunch of pregnancy tests just lying around in the cabinet.

I have no idea how you use it so I just do what it says on the back **(A.N) I have literally no idea how you use those things). **I pace back and forth in the hall. Not daring to look inside. I'm too terrified that it'll say positive.

I run into my bed room and ruffle through my desk, looking for my old blanket. I haven't had to use it for comfort in years but I can't deny how soft it is and how much I missed it. I hear a small noise in the hall and sit strait up. I put the blanket back in the drawer quietly and sneak back to my parents bathroom.

Oh SHIT! I see the test; it's positive.

**Katniss POV**

That'll teach her not to mess with a six month pregnant woman! Ha!

I sit contently downstairs while my daughter goes bezerk upstairs.

While she was in her room I put my pregnancy test in the water instead of hers. Ha! Take that Peeta! I told you there was a use to keep them!

I sit and sip my tea as Emery runs around like she lost her mind. I guess she won't be pulling that little prank on anyone any time soon!

I knew she was faking as soon as she suggested it. She really has no career in acting. I can tell that she's not acting though when she looks at Max and her eyes cloud over with love. She may not know it yet but I can tell that she's mad for him.

"Emery?" I call. "Is that you?" she may not have any acting skills; but I sure do. as soon as I call her she stops running around and doesn't make a sound. Slowly and quietly I hear her soft voice.

"Hey mom." She says, I wonder why her voice is getting louder. "guess what? I'm not staying here anymore! I'm leaving!" my heart thuds down into my chest as I hear a window slam closed.

**(A.N) not all this family's problems can be solved at once can they? They just go on and on and on and on! Well, we'll see what happens next time! **


End file.
